“Yeah, right,” I say, grabbing it and bringing it to my lips while I look over at Dylan who has his own vanilla cone.

“Do you want to sit over there?” Justin points at the picnic table beside the ice cream place. Dylan walks over, and Justin sits with his legs on each side of the bench. I sit beside him, but he scoots over, and it’s almost as if I’m sitting between his legs. Dylan sits in front of us, and he tells me all about his day and how he scored on Justin when they played one-on-one.

“He did try to trip me,” Justin mumbles, and I look over at him, laughing. He just leans forward and kisses me on the lips as if he’s been doing it forever. I look over at Dylan to see if he saw, and he is just licking away at his ice cream.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispers, his face close to mine. All I can do is smile at him, and he kisses me again. “Everyday even more.”

“I have sticky hands,” Dylan says. We both look at him and see that the ice cream has leaked over the cone and onto his hands.

“We’ll go wash them,” Justin says, getting up and waiting for Dylan. “There is a bathroom over there.” He points at a Starbucks. “You want something to drink?” he asks me, and I just shake my head. “Let’s go, buddy.” I watch them walk into the Starbucks for Dylan to wash his hands.

Sitting at that table, I can’t recall a time Andrew ever did such a thing. Not even in the beginning. He would just look at me and expect me to know how to make him stop crying. As if I held a magical switch that would automatically get him to stop, and when the colic started, it was even worse. He would go away for days at a time, and I thought he was just staying with a friend so he could get the sleep he needed for school. What I didn’t know was that he was off getting high.

I spot Justin walking out of Starbucks with Dylan by his side, and they are laughing at something when Justin holds up his hand, and Dylan jumps and gives him a high-five. Then he holds his hand and walks across the street, his eyes making sure that he’s okay, but then looking at me.

“Ready?” he asks when he finally comes to me, and I have to blink away some tears. He must see it because he comes over to me. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” I say with a smile. He puts his arm around my shoulders, pulling me to him, and for the first time, I put my arm around his waist as he leads me to the SUV.